Pastor’s Welcome

Welcome to the web page for The Presbyterian Church of Red Bluff! I’m glad you’ve dropped in for a little cyberspace visit, and would love an opportunity to meet you in person, should you decide to swing by the corner of Hickory & Jefferson one Sunday morning! Let me tell you a little bit about our church, so you know what to expect.

The Presbyterian Church of Red Bluff has been a presence in this community for over 150 years! This is a congregation with beautiful traditions, a sense of history, and a heritage of faith that has been handed down from one generation to the next with care and conviction. The church is filled with warm-hearted people who have an appreciation for the past, but also have a practical participation in the present and a prayerful approach to the future. The worship service includes some time-honored traditions of our faith (like reciting The Lord’s Prayer or Apostle’s Creed and singing some hymns together), but also a freshness with a time for prayer requests, a children’s choir that sings once a month, and the occasional interweaving of contemporary music, accompaniment with piano, organ, fiddle or guitar and sometimes even a jazz band.

I feel like I need to tell you, quite honestly, that we are not a perfect church. We understand that the church is two things simultaneously: the beautiful bride of Christ, and a monument to fallen humanity. We celebrate that God entrusted human beings with the Gospel message, and that it has been faithfully handed down for over 2,000 years! We are proud to be a part of that amazing Body of Christ, Family of God, providing a sense of Christ’s tangible presence on this earth. We also understand that sin is a reality in all of our lives, and that mistakes are made and hard lessons learned when a congregation shares life together. We rejoice that God wraps his loving arms around us, and teaches us the meaning of words like repentance, forgiveness, redemption and salvation through the very messes we make. Sometimes the journey is rocky and steep, but we know God has us in his grip, and so we keep our eyes on Him as we continue on The Way.

We are a church that cares for our community where poverty and homelessness create some real challenges. We have a strong work ethic and a desire to provide “a hand up, not a hand-out.” To that end we ask people to do some volunteer work for us in exchange for the grocery gift cards we provide. We have a shower that gets a lot of use, but we celebrate the fact that those who use our shower also clean our bathroom! Our classrooms are used by a wide variety of 12-step groups but we rejoice that those groups are helping people make significant life changes.

Members of our church come from every walk of life. Some are unemployed and some are physicians. We have attorneys and farmers, teachers and homemakers, people who love email and people who wish computers had never been invented! Some of us are Republicans and some of us are Democrats. Conservative and liberal, dyed in the wool Presbyterians and people who are going to church for the very first time ever, we are a mix! Somehow it works! Sharing life together in what sometimes feels like a pretty random manner invites each of us to stretch and grow. And who knows? This just might be the place where you will want to stretch and grow too. God is up to something in each of our lives, in our community, in our world, and in this church. Of that we are certain. Join us, and share the adventure!

Blessings,

Pastor Beth Hoyt

Meet our Pastor

Pastor Beth Hoyt

Pastor Beth moved from Colorado to Red Bluff in June of 2010 to begin serving our church. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Colorado, a Master’s degree in counseling from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Divinity degree from Denver Seminary. She believes that her three different degrees help her in ministry to respond to the needs of body, mind and spirit that all human beings experience. She loves the outdoors and says that kayaking the Sacramento or hiking a favorite trail in Lassen National Park are places where she often feels God’s presence most deeply. Reading scripture and endeavoring to bring scripture to life in her preaching is a highlight of Beth’s ministry. Beth is married to Steve Hoyt, and between the two of them they have five children, three grandchildren, two dogs and a Harley.